“Me Voy” [ft. Mala Rodríguez]

Naomi and Lisa-Kaindé Díaz, the French-Cuban twin sisters behind Ibeyi, create music that seems made for an immaterial world, drawing on bracing, bare-bones electro-R&B and their own spirituality for their self-titled debut album. On “Me Voy,” the latest single from their forthcoming sophomore album, Ash, the sisters move toward the corporeal, as singer Lisa-Kaindé comes to grips with the very mortal conflict of leaving a lover behind for something better.

With a chiming marimba, electronic percussion, and Naomi’s steadfast batà drumming, “Me Voy” (Spanish for “I’m going”) is one of Ibeyi’s most pop-leaning songs to date—as well as their first sung entirely in Spanish, a choice meant to tinge the song with a deeper sensuality. It works: Alongside a slinky assist from the Spanish hip-hop artist Mala Rodríguez, Ibeyi make the song’s central concern—longing for the past but seeing the promise of the future—feel more immediate. With a combination of flowery phrases like the “sueño y miel” (“dreams and honey”) that Lisa-Kaindé feels from a lover's kiss and “Cualquiera que sufre ama fuerte” (“whomever suffers loves strongly”), as Mala raps, “Me Voy” is rendered with nuance. The song proves that, even while exploring more earthbound concerns with a brighter sound palette, Ibeyi’s emotional core remains intact.